The accurate placement of forms used for in situ production of poured concrete structural elements such as walls, footings and curbs is time consuming, hence costly. This was often the result of the fact that such forms are usually constructed of reusable sections that must be accurately aligned with each other and positioned so that the resulting structural element is located precisely according to building plan. Typically in the prior art, adjacent form sections are releasably connected to each other by utilizing reusable so-called wedge-bolts, and spaced confronting portions of the form are positioned by sacrificial tie rods.
At least the ends of each prior art tie rod are threaded to receive nuts that are used to properly space confronting form portions and to receive additional nuts that hold or prevented these form portions from separating. These rods were relatively expensive, locating them often presented problems, and operating the nuts was time consuming, both when applying and when removing same, especially when the threads became contaminated with cement.